The Beyond #29

In "Doomsmoke," pipe collector Ira Krim can't resist the eerie allure of a skull-shaped pipe in a curio shop, drawn to it despite ominous warnings. The moment he takes it home, a chilling sense of inevitability settles in—something ancient and hungry seems to stir with every puff.

In "Legend of the Long 3rd Finger," a man tries to leave his haunted past behind, only to be drawn back by the dying words of his first wife—her final warning that their eldest child was born with a long third finger, a mark of a curse. Years later, that child returns, his fate sealed by the mark, and the family’s peace hangs on the edge of a secret long buried.

In the quiet Bavarian village of Hof, where the orchards grow thick and secrets run deep, an orchard-keeper is caught in a grim act—burying bodies beneath the trees. But the land itself seems to remember what the earth should not hold, and the orchards begin to react in ways no one can explain.

In "Candles for the Undead," a struggling candle maker driven to desperation by poverty and heartbreak turns to grave robbing to keep his business alive—only to awaken something far more sinister than he ever imagined. The story unfolds with a quiet dread, as the line between creator and creation begins to blur in the dark.

In the thick of a fog-choked night at a remote airfield, an anxious officer waits to fly home for his wife’s impending childbirth—only to hear the grim news that his flight has crashed. When a silent stranger offers to pilot him through the storm, the journey becomes a tense, haunting ride through uncertainty. The truth of the stranger’s identity will leave the officer reeling long after the plane touches down.